As the autumn Speyside whisky festival gets under way, single malt aficionados will be flocking to the doors of the dozen or so distilleries producing one of Scotland's best-known products. They'll be nosing, tasting, imbibing, doing all the things whisky lovers do, and the purists among them would probably throw up their hands in horror at the idea of wasting a wee dram by adding it to the cooking pot.

But whisky is increasingly venturing out of the drinks cabinet and into the kitchen. The spirit is the alcoholic equivalent of salt – it brings out the flavor of the sea in seafood, the smokiness of smoked food, and the sweetness in a dessert. This is all down to its peculiar chemistry, says Rachel Barrie, master blender for Bowmore Distilleries.

"Whisky has an incredibly diverse flavour spectrum, much more so than wine," she says. "The flavours of a single malt Scotch whisky, for example, are derived from malted barley fermentation, the distillation process and maturation in oak casks over several years, which makes it ideal to boost a wide variety of flavours in foods."

So the citrus, herbal flavors of a single malt Auchentoshan Classic brings out the herbal notes in dishes such as chicken in a creamy tarragon sauce. In contrast, the robust and full-flavored Glen Garioch single malt from the eastern Highlands, with its balance of ripening fruit, heather honey, barley malt spices and mature, creamy texture, makes it the perfect partner for ripe, mature cheese.

Many restaurants, particularly in Scotland, have whisky as well as wine lists, but adding the drink to a diverse range of foods is a relatively new trend. There used to be cranachan, the traditional Scottish dessert of oats, cream, whisky and raspberries, and, of course, the annual pouring of whisky over haggis on Burns Night. Now there is whisky-glazed meat, poached fish, stir-fries, sauteed vegetables and a whole host of other whisky-infused ideas becoming ever more common around the world.

During cooking, evaporation of the alcohol concentrates the barley malt sweetness, smokiness, maturation oils and caramelised sugars from the oak casks. Mark Greenaway, founder of the eponymous Edinburgh restaurant, says: "It adds bite to traditional recipes." Greenaway tries to incorporate as many local ingredients as possible into his menus. His multi-layered salted honeycomb parfait pudding uses whisky to bring out its range of flavours. "I wanted the dessert to reflect the many layers of flavour found within the whisky: honeycomb, lime, coconut and salt, to name but a few."

I know some people will regard cooking with the golden liquid as sacrilege. Admittedly you might think twice, given its price, before sloshing a particularly good whisky into the pot, the way you might with wine. But there are also plenty of people arguing in its favour.

And if further evidence were needed that whiskey is out of the barrel and on the menu, you need look no further than this summer's G8 summit, which took place at Loch Erne in Northern Ireland. The leaders of the world's most powerful countries feasted on Northern Irish delicacies and rounded off their meal with apple crumble and Bushmills custard, as tweeted by the prime minister.